Last Trip to the West – July 31

We started the day early with a 6:30 departure for Kwame Yebohakrom in one of the FORIG trucks, with what we hoped would be the last of the parts for the Lister engine project. With Govina at the wheel of the truck and Peter as co-captain we made quick time to the village arriving somewhere after 10, even with a quick stop for fufuo. The building for the engine was still unfinished but was complete enough to hopefully finish the project. After quickly bolting the generator up, tightening the belt in place we were ready to test our system. The engine was fired up, running as well as ever and the generator was spinning without vibrating out of place or throwing the belt. Everything seemed okay until Peter went to test the generators voltage with a standard light bulb, which was immediately popped. Concerned, we called the man we had purchased the generator from to learn that he misspoke when we told us the generator operating speed, and we were operating it at over twice what it should be running.

A man in Duasidan next to the covered Lister engine

Determined to finish the project, we decided after a bit of head scratching to try the second smaller pulley on the machine that was shipped with it to see if we could match the desired speed.  After a quick run to Nkran Kwanta to grab another belt and relocating the generator we fired the Lister engine up again for another test. Sadly, even though the generator was spinning at what should be the correct speed, the test light bulb was popped again. Even after turning the generator around to spin it in the opposite direction we were unable to get the correct voltage. Running out of time in the day, we decided to take the generator back to Kumasi to see if it had become damaged on its way to the project site. It was upsetting to leave the village with all our hard work unfinished, but we knew if the generator could be revived, our friend Peter would have no problem finishing the project after our departure.

Meanwhile the girls were dropped off at Duasidan in the morning to have one last meeting with community members regarding the monkey sanctuary advertisements and future work in the community.  We arranged with the printer in Kumasi for the road sign advertisements to be printed before our departure from Ghana and arranged for the Duasidan Assemblyman, Jacob, to post them at appropriate intersections en route to Duasidan.  The community expressed interest in forming a community center if future Pavlis students could provide supplies for it.  They even showed us which room in an old school building they could renovate for community use. 

After our formal meeting we requested that we could have a taxi called to pick us up.  It took three hours to actually get the taxi, but we passed the time playing with the huge crowd of kids that showed up.  Finally, the taxi arrived, driven by a nice guy called German, who dropped us off in Babianeha. 

Mollie and Helena with kids in Duasidan

In Babianeha, Mollie went with Victoria, Emmanuel’s cousin who will start University in September, to interview families in the village about their cooking habits.  It was really interesting to see the range of cooking methods used in the village all the way from very modern gas ranges in kitchens to open fires outside the house.  Meanwhile, Helena and Chelsea ran a few final errands around town, including dropping off a bag of biochar for the school garden. 

A typical outdoor fire for cooking

In the afternoon the girls traveled to Dormaa to speak with the MCE there.  However, because it was the one-week celebration of the president’s death, both the MCE and the Director were busy and so we got to meet the assistant director.  He was very enthusiastic about our efforts to advertize the Duasidan Monkey Sanctuary and he was especially excited about the website we hope to develop.  He was very optimistic about future development of the site by the Dormaa Assembly in collaboration with Pavlis!

After a long day of work everyone was ready to head home to Sunyani to have dinner with a delegation of people from the Sunyani MCE’s office as well as some other friends from Sunyani.  Just as Mike and Clayton were beginning to arrive in Dormaa to pick up the girls, their truck overheated, stalling on the road. The girls were sent on ahead to finish the journey by bus, just before realizing that Mike and Clayton had the only sets of keys to the dorm. Running quite a bit behind, the truck was quickly fixed and the guys quickly rushed home to change with the waiting girls and head to the dinner.

Despite being one hour late, we were still able to meet everyone for a wonderful dinner. The meal was a fancy buffet with two courses.  We all looked quite dashing in our newly tailored Ghanaian outfits if we do say so ourselves! 

The group with our friend Govina after the dinner (note his black clothing and red scarf worn in honor of the one week celebration of the president's death) 

Written by Mollie and Mike

Waste in Sunyani and Donations – July 30

Mollie called the Minister of Environmental Health this morning to set up a tour of the final disposal site for solid and liquid waste for Sunyani.  The goal of the tour was to assess whether the site could be the topic of a senior design project.  Mollie and Helena met with Daniel, the second in command for Environmental Health in Sunyani.  He talked to us at the district assembly first and then arranged for a truck to take us to the site. 

The solid waste is currently dumped on site by a contracting company paid for by the central government in Accra, providing a free garbage pickup service for individuals and businesses.  The liquid waste is currently being discharged into a lagoon system for free by private companies that are paid by individuals and businesses.  Daniel indicated that they are very interested in obtaining a truck scale so they can start charging the private companies for use of their lagoon.  He also mentioned the need for increased use of land cover over garbage dumped on the site daily.  Right now the garbage is only covered once a month. 

Mollie and Daniel discussing liquid waste disposal

Despite these challenges, Daniel was justifiably proud of Sunyani for having such an advanced waste processing system for the area.  He was especially proud of Sunyani being named the Cleanest City in Ghana 4 years in a row!  He was very excited about the idea of having Michigan Tech students design an improved system for the city and we plan to be in contact about the details of the project. 

That evening we had a lot of things to sort out in our rooms, including preparing gifts to give to all the people that have helped us out so far here in Ghana.  We also decided where to give our remaining educational supplies that we had in our luggage, and our biggest task was allocating the supplies in the shipment that we sent in May.  The update on the shipment is that it has arrived in Tema, the biggest port of Ghana, but it is still going through a clearing process, so we will not be able to distribute it’s contents ourselves.  Fortunately, we had already marked many of the books and supplies with which location they were intended for, but some items were still unmarked, so we worked on writing up clear instructions for the MCE of Sunyani as well as Emmanuel so they can distribute the supplies in the next few weeks when they are available. 

Nsawkaw - July 22

Chelsea, Helena, and Mike were met in the morning by Godwin, one of the drivers from FORIG, who would accompany us on our trip to Nsawkaw. In Nsawkaw, we needed to visit the Tain District Hospital to discuss the needs of the hospital with Dr. Rockson, and if still applicable, to get the necessary information to arrange a shipment of repurposed medical equipment in the coming year. We also planned to visit the senior high school where last year’s group donated several netbook computers and other supplies.

Chelsea, Godwin, and Mike at the back of the tro-tro to Wenchi

Helena in the tro-tro to Wenchi

We had to take a few taxis to get to the right transit station in Sunyani from which we could take a tro-tro to the town of Wenchi, followed by another tro-tro to Nsawkaw. Tro-tro rides are always interesting- at one point, our tro-tro had overheated, so the driver just flipped up the front seats (where the engine was apparently just underneath) and poured water on the engine- filling the tro-tro with steam- until it was cooled enough. All the Ghanaians in the tro-tro turned to grin at us at that point, and said “Welcome to Africa!” At the transit stations, we were also on the lookout for Ghanaian donuts, which are a really common food sold on the streets here, and they normally consist of just a ball of deep-fried dough. At one of the stations though, Mike and Chelsea spied what looked like sugar-covered donuts, and we searched for them throughout the day after that, without success.

In Nsawkaw we were greeted by Mr. Brobi, a man who has worked with Pavlis in the past.  Mr. Brobi facilitated our day’s meetings at both the hospital and the school. First we went to his house, a nice place where future Pavlis students would be welcome to stay if they needed to be in the area multiple days. Then we visited the Tain District Hospital- a very nice place with a TV in the waiting area (a Chelsea soccer game was on while we were there) and several green courtyards. Most of the hallways were open-air. We were led to Dr. Rockson’s office, where we discussed the state of the hospital’s needs, previous obstacles to effective communication, and his (and the hospital’s) interest in working with MedWish, an organization that repurposes medical equipment for the hospital’s in need.

With Mr. Brobi (left) and Dr. Rockson (middle)

In order to better familiarize us with the needs of his workplace, Dr. Rockson then took us on a general tour of the hospital. We took several pictures and listened to Dr. Rockson’s explanation of the different areas of the hospital. Finally, we shook hands (as always) and left the hospital to walk to the senior high school to meet with the headmaster (we couldn’t see any students since it was a Sunday). We walked about fifteen minutes outside of town to a school surrounded by a huge open field. The classrooms were open-air, but the current, as well as the former, headmasters who greeted us ushered us into an enclosed room, where we discussed how the supplies they received last year are working for them, and what their other needs are.

They really appreciate the ten or so computers which Pavlis gave them last year, because they can use them to teach the students basic computer skills, which many students in Ghana can only learn theoretically because they don’t have the computers to try it out themselves. The books and other supplies were given to the students, and were also appreciated. The headmasters explained that the senior high has not only switched from being a private to a state-run school this year, but they will also soon be moving to a new building on the other side of town. What they would really like to have near the high school is a community center filled with more computers and books, and they would need whatever assistance they could get, not only with the supplies for filling the center, but with the building materials as well. We emphasized that although we will pass on this information to next year’s group, whether or not they can help will depend on their resources. We wrapped up the meeting by signing the school’s guestbook, and had the excitement of seeing the signatures from last year’s Pavlis students who visited.

The guestbook at the Nsawkaw High School

Finally, we walked back into town to make our way back to Sunyani, taxi and tro-tro style. The only hiccup was that our tro-tro in Wenchi had a broken headlight, so we had to wait a couple hours until it was ready to go. The driver was pretty fast though, so that made up for some time! ;)

Written by Helena and Chelsea

Kwatre - July 17

 We started the day with an early meeting with Obeng Kwaku, the Sunyani Department of Education supervisor.  We were then taken to the office of the West Sunyani District (the district in which Kwatre, one of the schools we hope to support with our shipment of school supplies), where we were formally introduced to their supervisor.  What we had hoped would be just one more office and one more introduction to the West Sunyani District Supervisor of Education, turned into a slightly longer visit.  We were finally able to greet appropriate officials and were given permission so that Kwaku was able to accompany us to the Kwatre District Assembly School.

The Kwatre District Assembly School, which was first opened in the 1950s, houses two KG classes in addition to classes 1-6 and a Junior High School.  One of the primary challenges the school faces is supplying its very full classrooms with adequate materials to allow for effective and convenient learning.   Government schools, like Kwatre, are designed to facilitate classrooms of 20 to 35 students.  In visiting the school, however, we learned that almost all of Kwatre’s classes contain upwards of 45 students.  Accordingly, the government support for the school is stretched is extremely thin.  Without a central library, each classroom has a cupboard to house both books and other teaching and learning materials. 

The Kwatre District Assembly School has many ideas and hopes for future progress.  Their interests range from improving computer literacy, to procuring a school library and support staff, to improving their teacher accommodations (living quarters for the teachers on campus).  Their most recent development is a computer lab (or, as they call it, an ICT center) in which students have access to sixteen high-functioning computers).  The ICT center is the direct result of community involvement; the community pooled together to purchase four of the desktop computers, and later petitioned parliament for a grant to provide the additional twelve.  Of course, they continue to seek additional resources to provide for their increasing enrollment.  We were extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to briefly visit each basic classroom, observe the Junior High School students taking examinations, as well as tour the ICT center during our visit.

The West Sunyani District Supervisor of Education on the left, showing the ICT center

Students in a classroom in Kwatre

The unfortunate news from this day was that Mollie was still in the hospital, taking medicine for malaria, but the upside is that she got a very nice private room at the Sunyani hospital and it even had a hot shower to enjoy!

Written by Chelsea

Shipment has shipped!

Hello World, and welcome to the travel and projects blog of the Pavlis Ghana group, 2012! 

Our big achievement last week was to send all the supplies that we have gathered to Ghana!  The shipment is going by boat (ship?) to Tema, the port city of Ghana, near the capital Accra.  The shipment is being sponsored by the MCE (Metropolitan Chief Executive) of Sunyani.  It should arrive while we are in Ghana and we will be able to distribute the supplies to upwards of four different schools and community centers in rural areas.  All of the supplies were either donated or purchased with money from our fundraising efforts.  Thank you to all of our supporters out there, including the Shipping Shop of Houghton for all of their help!!!

Chelsea, Mollie and Helena with the shipment

The shipment came out to a whopping 2.6 cubic meters, 1425 pounds filled with books, computers, and other school supplies!  Keep coming back for more project updates, there's plenty yet to do in preparation!